Searching apparatus and a method of searching

ABSTRACT

A search engine at a service provider is configured to identify commercial suppliers in response to a keyword specified by a user. Keywords are received and searches are performed on an index database to identify displayable text items. Images are stored in the form of commercially relevant graphical images such as logos. A logo is linked to each item of displayable text and an output list is produced in which each text item includes a displayable graphical image. The system may store different image formats to allow the graphical images to be displayed on a variety of platforms.

CROSS-REFERENCES TO RELATED APPLICATIONS

This application is a continuation of U.S. patent application Ser. No.10/296,036, filed Jun. 6, 2003, entitled: Searching Apparatus and aMethod of Searching, now U.S. Pat. No. ______, which is a 371 ofPCT/GB01/02330, entitled: Searching Apparatus and a Method of Searching,filed May 24, 2001, both of these patent applications incorporated byreference herein.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

1. Field of the Invention

The present invention relates to searching and in particular relates tosearching apparatus configured to identify commercial suppliers inresponse to a specified key word.

2. Description of the Related Art

Search engines that facilitate the searching of available data that maybe supplied in electronic form are well known. Initially, these searchengines were established by academic institutions and were configuredprimarily to disseminate research information and similar studies.

More recently, searching activities of this type have been deployed inmore commercial environments. In particular, in response to a user'srequest for commercial information, possibly identifying suppliers ofparticular goods or services, search engines are known that can providea list of suppliers that are available to provide goods or services ofthe requested type.

When services of this type have been implemented using internettechnology, it is common practice for the search results to be providedto a user without charge, thereby remaining consistent with otherinternet activities. Thus, a search engine may provide a list ofcontacts in the form of a web page having links to supplier's websitesetc. When a user accesses a supplier's website via the search material,the search provider obtains information to this effect. The serviceprovider is then in a position to submit a charge to the advertisingsupplier based on the number of hits that have taken place. It istherefore advantageous from the service provider's perspective for theservice to be used and for many hits to occur. A problem with thisapproach is that the information provided by known search engines makesthe information available in a relatively dry form and as such users areless encouraged to make active use of the service and are not attractedto particular suppliers. Furthermore, the user is often presented withlong lists of data from which it is often very time consuming andtedious to selected a desired supplier's web site.

It is an object of the present invention to at least substantiallyreduce or overcome the above described problems.

BRIEF SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

According to an aspect of the present invention, there is providedSearching apparatus configured to identify commercial suppliers inresponse to a specified keyword, the apparatus comprising: input meansarranged to receive an input keyword; searching means configured tosearch a database indexed with respect to specified keywords to identifydisplayable text items related to said input keyword, each itemregarding one of said commercial suppliers; image storage means arrangedto store graphical images, each graphical image identifying a commercialsupplier; linking means configured to link each stored graphical imagewith a respective one of the displayable text items; and output meansconfigured to supply data defining a list of said identified text itemsand any respective linked displayable graphical images selected by saidlinking means.

The present invention provides a rapid recognition of a supplier from alist of textual information by virtue of the provision of a recognizablegraphical image identifying or associated with the supplier. This inturn leads to less browser fatigue when considering search results andmakes searching much easier.

In a preferred embodiment, the input means is a computer, a web enabledtelevision, a mobile telephone or a hand-held computer. Preferably, thesearching means includes a relational database with a plurality ofrelated tables and the image store may be arranged to storerepresentations of logos. Preferably, the logos are stored in aplurality of formats such as those appropriate for a personal computer,a web television, a mobile phone or a hand-held computer or anycombination of these formats.

According to a second aspect of the present invention, there is provideda method of searching for details of commercial suppliers, comprisingthe steps of: receiving an input keyword; searching an index of keywordsto identify said input keyword and textural items associated therewith;linking a stored displayable graphical image identifying a commercialsupplier to a respective one of the identified textural items; andproducing an output list of textural items and any respective linkeddisplayable graphical images selected by said linking step.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

A presently preferred embodiment of the present invention will now bedescribed by way of example with reference to the accompanying drawings.In the drawings:

FIG. 1 shows an environment connecting a plurality of users over theworld wide web;

FIG. 2 shows procedures implemented within the environment shown in FIG.1;

FIG. 3 details the structure of the service provider identified in FIG.1;

FIG. 4 illustrates operations performed by the service providerillustrated in FIG. 1;

FIG. 5 details the structure of the database identified in FIG. 4;

FIG. 6 illustrates a file directory for graphical images stored withinthe data bank identified in FIG. 4;

FIG. 7 illustrates a campaign generation form;

FIG. 8 shows a search request form;

FIG. 9 illustrates a filtered query;

FIG. 10 shows an output image displayed on a computer;

FIG. 11 shows an output image displayed on a web television;

FIG. 12 a shows an output image displayed on a WAP enable mobile phone;and

FIG. 12 b shows an output image display on a handheld computer.

BEST MODE FOR CARRYING OUT THE INVENTION

An environment in which a plurality of users 101 to 105 are connected tothe world wide web 100 is illustrated in FIG. 1. In accordance with httpprotocols, it is possible for users 101 to 105 to generate universalresource locations (URLs) which result in a particular website beinginterrogated and hypertext transfer protocol (http) pages beingreturned.

Many commercial organizations have made use of this environmenttherefore product and service suppliers 111, 112, 113 host electroniccommerce (e-commerce) websites such that, in response to an enquirybeing made to these websites by users 101 to 105 for example, it ispossible for orders to be placed and for commercial transactions to beeffected. A problem exists however in that for transactions of this typeto take place it is necessary for the users 101 to 105 made aware of thespecific URLs for the service and goods suppliers 111 to 113.

To facilitate this activity, service providers, such as service provider121 support search engines. Thus, as an alternative to generating a URLthat contacts a supplier directly, it is possible for a user, such asuser 101, to direct a single URL to the service provider 121 thatincludes specific search terms or keywords. At the service provider, asystem identifies these keywords and performs a search to identifyparticular suppliers that may be able to satisfy the demand expressed bythe users.

Procedures performed within the environment of FIG. 1 are shown in FIG.2. At step 201 the service provider 121 receives data from suppliers 111to 113. As this data is received, a local database is populated at step202. This process is then ongoing as more and more data becomesavailable or is identified by the service provider.

At step 203 a search request is received from a user, such as user 101.At step 204 a search is performed and at step 205 the results of thissearch are returned to the user 101. The user 101 is then in a positionto contact the suppliers 111 to 113 directly. However, when this iseffected via data provided by the service provider 121, the serviceprovider 121 is informed of this so that the service provider is madeaware to the effect that its customers, i.e. the suppliers, havereceived a hit, and may therefore provide the basis for a charge beingsubmitted. Consequently, at step 206 the question is asked as to whetherany more data is to be submitted to the database. When answered in theaffirmative, control is effectively directed to step 201. Alternatively,if answered in the negative, control is directed to 203.

The structure of service provider 121 is detailed in FIG. 3. A centralprocessing unit 301, such as a Pentium III processor, communicates with,for example, 256 megabytes of random access memory 302, CD-reader 303, acommunications interface 304, a backup tape streamer 305 and a ninetygigabyte (for example) disc store 306 over a bus 307. Instructionsexecutable by the central processing unit 301 are read from RAM 302after being installed via a data carrying medium in the form of a CD-ROM308 receivable within the CD-ROM reader 303.

Operations performed by service provider 121 are illustrated in FIG. 4.The service provider effectively provides a searching tool configured toidentify commercial suppliers in response to specified keywords.Keywords defined by a user are supplied as input requests to a searchengine 401. The search engine 401 accesses a database 402 that has beenindexed with respect to specified keywords to identify displayable textitems related to the input keyword or keywords. In addition to supplyingthis text information to a server 403, an image conversion process 404provides a linking mechanism configured to associate or link a graphicalimage received from an image bank 405 to each item of displayable text.Image conversion process 404 in combination with a server 403 provide anoutput mechanism configured to supply data defining the identified textfrom database 402 with associated displayable graphical images selectedfrom image bank 405.

In addition to performing searches, the system shown in FIG. 4 alsoreceives configuration data from suppliers, such as suppliers 111 to113, and this configuration data includes textural matter supplied todatabase 404 and graphical images supplied to image bank 405 under thecontrol of an administration process 406.

In the preferred embodiment, the data stored in database 402 includes atitle relating to a specific product or service or to a particularsupplier. In addition, there is a description of the particular productor service and a URL allowing a web browser to make immediate contactwith the supplier identified by the searching process.

Image bank 405 is preferably arranged to store a commercially relatedgraphic often in the form of a particular supplier's logo. Thus, theprovision of a graphical image bank 405 allows images to be stored forwhich a supplier may have conducted a large and ongoing marketingcampaign so as to make their graphical image or logo familiar to a widerange of users. Thus, the inclusion of this logo in data relating to thecommercial activities of an identified organization allows the user toidentify a particular supplier more quickly and, in combination withbackground advertising activities, will tend to prompt a user to selector make contact with that organization to a greater extent than if thelogo or graphical image were not there.

It is appreciated that the representation of graphical images requiresdifferent types of data for their presentation within different types ofplatforms. Image conversion process 404 is therefore not only requiredto combine a graphical image with a textural image received by thesearching process 401 but it is also required to select a particulartype of image dependent upon the nature of the equipment available tothe requesting user. Selecting one of the several differentpre-formatted images for a display device is considerably faster thanthe alternative of converting a standard image to the required format onthe, fly (in real time). This way is preferred because of speed, eventhough the storage capacity requirements for the image bank 405 aregreater.

Prior to combining a graphical image received from image bank 405 withtextural matter received from process 401, it is required that the imageconversion process 404 make reference to the particular type of end userequipment and thereafter select an appropriate image from image bank405. Thus, as shown in FIG. 4, it is possible to select an image fromimage bank 405 appropriate for a standard web browser as indicated at411. Alternatively, an image may be selected that is appropriate forbeing displayed on a web television, as indicated at 412, or a WAPenabled mobile telephone as indicated at 413, or in accordance withprotocols required for other wireless transmission as indicated at 414or in accordance with various protocols associated with handhelddevices, as indicated at 415.

It is to the advantage of the service provider to include details ofmany commercial suppliers thereby making the service provided attractiveto users. Similarly, as a service provider becomes more attractive tousers, there is a greater incentive for suppliers to be included on thedatabase which in turn creates a commercial pressure. Consequently, inorder to sustain the service, the service provider submits a charge tosuppliers and suppliers pay for the privilege of being included on thedatabase.

A searching operation performed by searching, process 401 is capable ofselecting particular entries included in database 402 in response tokeywords supplied by users. In accordance with database terminology,such a process is usually referred to as a filter in that entries thatinclude the particular keyword identified by a user are filteredexclusively such that a list is produced that contains only the entriesfor which the particular keyword is included. Unless specific measuresare included within this process, the ordering of this list will tend todepend upon the order in: which the data was written to the database inthe first place. For some searches, the length of the list could bequite large but recent studies have shown that most users will select aparticular supplier after viewing at most two pages of information Thus,although hundreds of potential suppliers may be selected in response toa particular keyword, it is likely that only the first ten or so entrieswithin a particular filtered search will be of interest to a user.Consequently, a commercial pressure is created not only to be includedbut also to be highly ranked.

Within the environment of database technology, it is possible to orderentries with respect to one or more fields, usually in an ascendingorder, i.e. with the lowest value at the top or in a descending orderwith the highest value at the top. Thus, it is conventional practice toinclude a field within a searched table or query that dictates the orderin which the entries are conveyed to users.

Within the present system, suppliers are invited to bid for theirposition in output listings. In terms of a bid, this may be organized asa fixed amount with, say, a highest bidder paying a fee in the region ofhundreds of thousands of dollars. Alternatively, fees may be charged ona per hit basis. A hit occurs for a particular supplier when the searchresults presented to the user include a textual entry from thatsupplier. Thus, a supplier may bid thirty cents per hit and when theirown website identifier receives a hit, the service provider notes thatanother thirty cents are to be charged to that particular supplier. Suchan approach is often perceived as being preferable in that suppliers arenot required to make any payment unless actual hits are generated.

Consequently, suppliers are invited to bid a per hit charge with respectto each keyword of interest. Thus, for the sake of this example, it isassumed that suppliers 111, 112 and 113 each produce musical instrumentsand each are keen to increase their sales of saxophones. Each aretherefore interested in subscribing to the keyword “saxophone” such thatwhen a user submits the keyword “saxophone” to the searching process,the suppliers 111 to 113 desire their presence to be identified, interms of a title of the products they supply, a brief description and alink to their own website allowing further enquiries or actual orders tobe submitted.

Each of the suppliers 111 to 113 are invited to bid for the privilege ofbeing included on the database and for ranking within the database.Supplier 113 declares that they are not prepared to make a payment forthis privilege, whereas supplier 111 is prepared to pay twenty cents perhit and supplier 112 is prepared to pay forty cents per hit.Consequently, these values are included within database 402 and when asearch is executed with respect to the keyword “saxophone” all entriesusing this keyword will be filtered out and thereafter the entries willbe ordered. Consequently, supplier 112, having made the highest bid,will be presented more highly in the list than supplier 111. At thediscretion of the service provider, supplier 113, who is not prepared topay anything, may or may not be included within the list. If included,supplier 113 will be placed at the bottom of the list.

Database 402 includes a plurality of tables, as illustrated in FIG. 5.These comprise a supplier table 501, a campaign/keywords table 502, adisplay table 503 and an image table 504. Supplier table 501 essentiallyincludes information relating to the specific supplier and is includedprimarily for administration and accounting purposes. Thus, an entry at511 comprises a unique supplier identification, followed by an entry at512 identifying the supplier's name, an entry or entries at 513identifying the supplier's address and an entry at 514 recording abalance, that is to say a totalized amount that should be invoiced tothe supplier, based on filtered hits, at the end of the next accountingperiod. Thus, each time the particular supplier obtains a hit, throughuse of the services provided by service provider 121, the bid amount forthe particular campaign is added to the balance recorded at 514.

Each supplier may express an interest in more than one keyword.Furthermore, the supplier's particular interests may vary from onekeyword to another, reflecting particular marketing campaigns. Thus, itis known that supplier 112 in this example manufactures saxophones butsupplier 112, having an expertise in piping, also supplies piping to theautomotive industries. Supplier 112 appreciates that these representcompletely separate markets and therefore separate campaigns exist foreach of these markets. It is therefore preferable that, in response to asearch being performed, different information is supplied to usersrequesting interests in saxophones compared to users expressinginterests in automotive brake piping.

Service provider 121 has established a system that is sensitive to thispossibility and as such the relationship between a particular supplierand a particular keyword is identified as a campaign. Thus, the totalnumber of campaigns facilitated by the system may be considered as thesum of all keywords multiplied by the number of suppliers expressing aninterest in each of the keywords. Thus, in the example, if each supplier111 to 113 has expressed an interest in three keywords, the total numberof campaigns considered by the system would be nine.

The database system 402 maintains a record of these particular campaignswithin campaign keyword table 502. Consequently, table 502 includes anentry 521 that uniquely identifies the campaign, an entry identifyingthe particular supplier for that campaign at 522, an entry for theparticular keyword of interest at 523 and an entry representing the bid,that is to say, the amount that a supplier is prepared to pay when thekeyword specified at 523 is entered by a user and the service providerreturns information generated by the supplier identified by the supplieridentification at 522.

Database 402 is relational and as such a link 525 confirms that thesupplier identification at 511 is linked to the supplier identificationat 522. Consequently, upon identifying a particular campaign, as aresult of a search being performed, it is possible to relate theinformation contained within table 502 back to the information containedwithin table 501, primarily resulting in further charges beingaccumulated within field 514.

The relationship between tables 501 and 502 defines how keywords aresearched resulting in a list of entries being submitted to a user. Auser then selects a particular entry which then defines a specificcampaign. The link between tables 502 and 501 then allows a particularcampaign to be associated with a particular supplier and for a financialaccrual to be made in the balance entry 514. Thus, although a suppliermay be signed up for several campaigns, when any of these campaigns isselected, a single balance entry at 514 is accumulated.

Display table 503 and image table 504 define the way in whichinformation is selected for submission to users in filtered lists.Specific output information is stored for each campaign therefore table503 and table 504 have a primary key defined by an entry for thecampaign identification, as shown at 531 of table 503 and as shown atentry 541 for table 504. These campaign identifications are related tothe campaign identification at 521 and are thereby relationally linked,as illustrated by link 551 and link 552.

Display table 305 stores textural information, in the form of a titlefield 532, a description field 533 and a URL field 534. When conveyed toa user this textural information is linked to a graphical image, usuallyin the form of a supplier's logo. The graphical image is read from imagebank 405 in response to information received from database 402 and inparticular with respect to information read from image table 504. Imagetable 504 includes references to particular files stored on image bank405. For each campaign, image bank 405 stores a plurality of graphicalimages stored in appropriate formats. In the example shown in FIG. 5,the system is configured to select one of four types of graphical imagesand the particular location of the respective files are stored at 542for the first type of file, a web browser, at location 543 for a secondtype of file, a web television image, at location 544 for a WAP mobilephone and at location 545 for a handheld personal digital assistant.

Thus, in operation, a keyword is detected by the search process 401.Process 401 is then configured to execute a search upon campaign table502 by submitting SQL commands to the database 402. In relativelymodestly sized systems, the searching operation may be performeddynamically as and when required. However, as the amount of dataincreases, it may be preferable to perform background housekeepingoperations to maintain additional indexes such that, in response toparticular keywords being identified, the rate at which data retrievalis performed may be increased significantly. However, as is understoodin the art, the maintaining of these additional indexes does placeadditional strain upon the overall process and therefore a compromisemust be reached in terms of the amount of time taken for a search to beconducted and the amount of background housekeeping performed in orderto make additional indexes available.

For the purposes of this disclosure, it should be understood that anindexing operation non-exclusively includes background pre-preparationof dedicated additional indexes or a dynamic re-indexing of existingtables.

The storage of graphical images within image bank 405 is illustrated inFIG. 6. The data is effectively stored as a file system and the rootdirectory has been identified at 601 as I: Beneath this, there is asub-directory or folder for each particular supplier and in this examplesupplier 111 has a directory illustrated at 602 and supplier 112 has adirectory illustrated at 603.

Within the folder for each supplier, additional folders orsubdirectories are created for each specific campaign. Thus, supplier111 has established a campaign A illustrated at 604, with an additionalcampaign, shown as campaign B at 605. Similarly, supplier 112 hasestablished a campaign C as shown at 606 and campaign D as shown at 607.

Within each of these campaign subdirectories a plurality of files exist,each for a specific image. Thus, campaign A consists of image one shownat 608, image two shown at 609, image three shown at 610 and image fourshown at 611. Similarly, campaign B comprises image five shown at 612,image six shown at 613, image seven shown at 614 and image eight shownat 615. In this example, the first image of a particular campaign may besuitable for being displayed on a conventional web browser running on aPC or similar. The second image is appropriate for being displayed on aweb television system, the third image is suitable for being displayedon a WAP enabled mobile phone and a fourth image is suitable for beingdisplayed on a hand held computer.

Thus, images of this type are included for campaign C, image nine at 616being for a web browser, image ten at 617 being for a web TV, imageeleven at 618 being for a mobile phone and image twelve and 619 beingfor a handheld computer.

Administration process 406 allows new suppliers to register with theservice provider. The administration process 406 also allows existingsuppliers to establish new campaigns and allows existing suppliers tomodify existing campaigns.

In order to establish a campaign, a supplier 112 contacts the serviceprovider 121 over the world wide web 100 using a specific URLestablished for this purpose. In response, supplier 112, having acomputer system 112A and a display monitor 112B receives a campaigngeneration form as illustrated in FIG. 7. In response to receiving theform shown in FIG. 7, displayed on monitor 112B, a supplier is invitedto identify a particular keyword at entry 701. This keyword may beselected from a list of existing keywords or a supplier may wish toestablish a new keyword.

At entry 702, the supplier enters a title and at entry 703 the supplierenters their URL, identifying the website that users will contact inresponse to an identification being made by the searching process.Thereafter, at location 705 a further description is included, up to amaximum number of characters, thereby completing the textural content ofthe particular entry for the particular campaign under consideration.

Entry 706 allows a file to be identified representing the supplier'slogo. It is possible for a supplier to identify the location of a filedirectly or, in accordance with established windows corn protocols, abrowse button 707 may be selected resulting in a box being displayedshowing a representation of the local file system and allowing aparticular graphical file to be selected. Thereafter, details from theform may be submitted back to the service provider 121 by operation ofsubmit button 708 or the form may be cleared by operation of resetbutton 709.

Upon operation of submit button 708, the information contained withinthe form is returned from the supplier 121 over the world wide web 100back to the service provider 121.

In response to receiving information of the type illustrated in FIG. 7,the administration process 406 populates database 402 with the texturalinformation and populates image bank 405 with appropriate graphicalinformation. The administration process 406 interrogates the nature ofthe graphical information that has been submitted to ensure that theinformation has been conveyed in an acceptable protocol. If a judgmentis made to the effect that the protocol is not appropriate, the supplieris contacted and invited to make an alternative submission. Onceappropriate graphical information has been received by administrationprocess 406 it is processed in order to render it into representationsthat are appropriate for the particular platforms that are being served.Thus, in response to receiving a single graphical image, relating toparticular campaign, the administration process processes this graphicalinformation in order to produce a graphical image appropriate for a webbrowser, with a further graphical image being produced that isappropriate for a web television, a further graphical image beingproduced that is appropriate for a WAP enabled mobile telephone and afurther graphical image being produced that is appropriate for ahandheld computer. These four (or more) images are then written tospecific files and held within image bank 405.

After writing the graphical images to the image bank 405, image table504 is populated with details as to the specific file locations for theimages. Similarly, display table 503 is populated with a uniqueidentification for the campaign, along with the title, description andURL provided by the supplier. Similarly, table 502 is populatedidentifying the specific campaign, the keyword identified at 701 and thebid identified at 704. Thus, in this specific example, supplier 112 hasexpressed an interest in the keyword “saxophone”. Supplier 112 hasprovided a graphical image that identifies its logo in an acceptableform. This graphical image has been processed to present the graphicalimage in the four representations being considered for this specificexample. Furthermore, textural information has been written to displaytable 503 and a bid of forty cents has been written to field 524 oftable 502. Thus, in response to a search on the keyword “saxophone”being initiated by a user, an appropriately indexed version of table 502allows the keyword to be filtered in combination with an orderingexercise in order to place campaigns with the highest bids at the top ofthe list.

After database 402 and image bank 405 have been populated, it ispossible for a user, such as user 101, to perform a search. Serviceprovider 121 is contacted via an appropriate URL, resulting in a pagebeing returned to user 101 and being displayed on display unit 101a, asshown in FIG. 8. The user is invited to type a keyword at position 801and then return the information back to the service provider 121. Thus,for example, a user may return the keyword “cars” resulting in a searchbeing performed to return campaign related information for the keyword“cars” presented in a ranking determined by bid values established bysuppliers.

In order to perform the search, table 502 is re-indexed as shown in FIG.9. In table 502, field 521 defining the campaign identification is theprimary key and the table is ordered in an ascending fashion with thecampaign identifications being place in numerical order, starting fromthe lowest and extending to the highest. This ordering is merely areflection of the order in which the entries are created and does notassist in terms of the searching operation.

In order to perform a search, the table is re-indexed with the keywordentry at 523 establishing the main filtering term and may therefore beconsidered as the primary entry as shown at 923 in FIG. 9. The queryalso includes the bid value at 924 and the campaign uniqueidentification at 921. For the purposes of this query, the supplierentry is not required and is therefore not included in the query.

Thus, the query results in a table being produced in which the keywordsare presented alphabetically. A filtering operation is now performed inorder to select campaigns that relate to the specific keyword. Thus, thefiltering operation results in a list being produced of all campaignsconcerning the keyword “cars”. The operation now refers to the secondfield 924 concerning bids and organizes the listing in accordance withbid values in descending order. Thus, the campaign with the highest bidvalue is placed at the top of the list, followed by the next andcontinuing until the least highest bid. For bids of equal value, furtherordering may be exercised in terms of campaign ID, such that the longestrunning campaigns are placed towards the top or in accordance with anyother criteria.

Thus, as a consequence of the searching operation, all campaignsrelating to the particular keyword have been selected and then placed inbid order. This results in a list of campaign identifications which isused to relate to display table 503 and is used to relate to image table504. Thus, each identified campaign results in its specific title,descriptions and URL being read from display table 503 while maintainingthe ranking established by the query shown in FIG. 9. In addition, animage is read from image table 504. The particular image read isdetermined by the campaign identification and is also determined by anindication of the nature of the equipment available to the requestinguser. The appropriate graphical information is then associated with thetextural information, a page of entries is assembled by image conversionprocess 404 and then the page of information is sent to the serverprocess 403 allowing it to be dispatched to the user in the appropriateformat.

The user request described with respect to FIG. 8 was initiated from auser's personal computer. As a result of this search, the search resultsare returned back to the user's computer and displayed on monitor 101aas illustrated in FIG. 10. Thus, the searched information consists of aplurality of entries 1001, 1002, 1003 and 1004 etc. Each entry such asentry 1001, includes a textural component 1011, read from database 402and a graphical logo 1012 read from image bank 405. Similarly, entry1002 includes a textural component 1013 and a logo 1014. Entry 1003includes a textural component 1015 and a logo 1016. Similarly, entry1004 includes a textural component 1017 and a logo 1018. Throughadvertising a marketing, logos 1012, 1014, 1016 and 1018 will haveattained a significant degree of recognition and goodwill. Consequently,users are encouraged to make swift selections based on the easilyrecognizable graphical representations, thereby enhancing the serviceprovided by the service provider.

The image shown in FIG. 10 has been read from file 608 for display on aconventional web browser executed by a personal computer. Alternatively,the information may be accessed by a web television 1101 as illustratedin FIG. 11. Television sets have a lower definition than most moderncomputer monitors, therefore the amount of information contained withina single window is less. However, for the same search, the same texturalinformation is displayed. Thus, if viewing on a web television as shownin FIG. 11 textural information 1102 is derived from display table 503and the exact same locations are read as would have been the case hadthe information been displayed on a computer system as shown in FIG. 10.However, for the computer system shown in FIG. 10, the graphicalinformation is derived from file 608 whereas for the web television, inorder to achieve a similar effect, the image information is read fromfile 609.

Other graphical display devices are shown in the form of a WAP enabledmobile telephone in FIG. 12A and a hand held computer in FIG. 12B.Again, graphical information 1201 is shown on the WAP enabled mobilephone. However, whereas the textural information 1202 is derived fromexactly the same source as textural information 1102, the graphical wageis derived from file 610 and then combined with the textural informationby the image conversion process 404. Similarly, the hand held computershown in FIG. 12B displays graphical information 1211 with texturalinformation 1212. The textural information is derived from exactly thesame place as the textural information 1202 and 1102 but on thisoccasion the graphical information is read from file 611.

It is to be appreciated that the term ‘graphical image’ as usedthroughout the specification is not limited to logos. Rather, it can beany image which is used as a trademark and as such could even be astylized word identifying a particular supplier.

Having described a particular preferred embodiment of the presentinvention, it is to be appreciated that the embodiment in question isexemplary only and that variations and modifications such as will occurto those possessed of the appropriate knowledge and skills may be madewithout departure from the spirit and scope of the invention as setforth in the appended claims.

1. A computerized system for identifying commercial suppliers inresponse to a user search, comprising: a main server comprising: astorage medium for storing computer components; and a processor incommunication with the storage medium for executing the computercomponents comprising: a first computer component configured forreceiving a keyword; a second computer component configured forsearching an index of keywords to identify the received keyword and anytextual items associated therewith; a third computer componentconfigured for linking each of a plurality of displayable graphicalimages, provided to the computerized apparatus independent of anytextual items being identified, wherein the displayable graphical imagesare stored together in an image bank and each of the displayablegraphical images identifies or is associated with a commercial supplier,to a respective one of the identified textual items, so as to formstored results entries, each stored results entry being arranged topresent the textual item and a displayable graphical image forsimultaneous display; and a fourth computer component configured forproducing a displayable output list of the stored results entries, thatinclude the textual items corresponding to the received keyword and thedisplayable graphical images linked thereto, such that when thedisplayable output list is displayed, a user may readily identify adesired commercial supplier from the displayable graphical images in thedisplayable output list.